


Take On the World, or My Own Little Part of It Anyway

by angelskuuipo



Category: Bourne Legacy (2012)
Genre: Character Study, GFY, Gen, Headcanon, Major Spoilers, really it won't make sense unless you've seen the movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-20
Updated: 2012-08-20
Packaged: 2017-11-12 13:26:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/491548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angelskuuipo/pseuds/angelskuuipo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world was a totally different place now.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take On the World, or My Own Little Part of It Anyway

**Author's Note:**

> *spreads hands* I have no idea. Apparently I’ve got a lot of feelings about Aaron and they had to be shared. This is my own personal head canon. This was originally just going to be the bit about how he became Aaron, but almost 1,100 words later I wound up taking him through the whole movie. I am okay with that. Un-betaed, except for having been read over several times by me. If you notice any glaring errors, please point them out gently. Thank you.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The world was a totally different place now.

Kenneth J. Kitsom had always known there was something wrong with him. Orphaned, stupid, so very easily led into situations that should have gotten him killed. Yeah, he knew he wasn’t right in the head, but he hadn’t truly _known_ until he became part of the Outcome Program.

Once the chems had built him up and leveled him out, once the training was done, once Kenneth J. Kitsom was dead and Aaron Cross took his place, that’s when he looked back over his old life and wondered how he’d survived to make it to this point.

Aaron became a voracious reader. He devoured books like there was no tomorrow. Any genre, any subject, it was all fair game and Aaron _loved_ it. He used to admire smart people, but didn’t have the wherewithal to envy them. The thought never even crossed his mind that he could be like that. Now that he was one of the smart ones he was never going to let that go. He didn’t need the lecture on withdrawal and the degradation from going off the chems to make sure he never forgot a dose. He was _not_ going to go back to the way he used to be. He was never going to be a gibbering idiot again.

This life wasn’t easy, but he was good at what he did. If he occasionally slipped, tried to be his own person for a little while, well, his superiors were more than happy to set up adventures like this to make him think twice about doing it again: the ass-end of Alaska with a pack of wolves on his tail. Good times.

Aaron knew he was kind of making an ass out of himself, but really, this guy was the first person he’d ever met that was also in the program. Sue him for being curious. He was kind of waiting for the other guy to whip it out and mark his territory. Relaxing the situation was not.

When the cabin was destroyed, and all the chems with it, Aaron knew fear like he hadn’t felt since his unit was attacked and he was left the only survivor. He had a very short window of time before he started to lose his mind and there was way too much to do, not the least of which was figuring out _why_ he’d been burned. He spared a brief moment for the other agent, but didn’t linger. There was no point.

Finding and rescuing Dr. Shearing was bittersweet. He’d always liked her, she had a good bedside manner, but having her confirm that she saw him as really nothing more than a lab rat was like a gut punch. He might have lost his temper and been a little more scathing than he normally would have been, but he was a little stressed out. The fact that she stayed with him and held it together went a long way to bringing her back up in his estimation, though. The woman didn’t know her own strength.

The Philippines. Okay. They could do this. He could get them there and she could get them in. His mind was starting to get a little fuzzy, but he could hold it together for a little longer. He had to. 

Goddamn it. Why couldn’t the guards have just left them alone? He didn’t really like fighting in front of Marta, didn’t really want her to see how ruthless he could be, but he didn’t have much of a choice. They were in this together and he was going to protect them both by any means necessary. The fact that she didn’t look at him any differently meant a lot to him.

_”Is this a test?”_

Fuck, but that shit acted fast. If he survived viraling out he was going to treat Marta to the best dinner he could find. The gift she was giving him…he didn’t really have the words to explain what it meant to him. To have that shadow of possibility of losing himself this way be gone, he kind of felt like he was seeing daylight for the first time. But if it wound up killing him he wanted to make sure Marta at least had a chance. Talking was difficult, but he did his best to let her know. He wasn’t sure he succeeded. Things got hazy after that. He thought he could feel her holding him, cooling him off with a damp washcloth, but that might have just been fevered imaginings. He was almost certain he’d imagined the feel of her lips on his forehead.

_”If I pass can I stay here?”_

_”Is this a test?”_

He felt normal again. He wasn’t sure if he’d expected to feel a whole lot different or not, but really he just felt like himself. And not a moment too soon from the sound of it. Bless Marta and her healthy lungs. Now that his mind was forever his own, he could focus on finding out why their lives had gone up in a shit storm. Well, he could focus on that after he got them out of Manila and got them some breathing room.

Getting shot sucked; getting shot while trying to keep the two of them on a motorcycle in the middle of a very crowded city sucked on a whole new level. Holding Marta’s hand, wrapping her fingers with his, shouldn’t have felt as good as it did. That little bit of contact was becoming a touchstone, but Aaron wasn’t sure it was going to be enough to keep him awake. He’d lost a little more blood than he thought. He wasn’t sure what she’d just done behind him, but he thought they might be safe now if he could just get to his feet, if he could just keep them moving. But he was so tired. He could hear Marta talking to someone and decided to let her handle it for now. He needed a break.

There were worse places to be than on a Filipino fishing boat in the middle of the ocean. It was gorgeous scenery and he had a beautiful and brilliant woman sitting next to him. Aaron rolled up the map and took Marta’s hand. Figuring out their next move could wait for a bit. He knew they didn’t have forever, but right at this moment it felt like they had all the time in the world.

The world was a totally different place now.

-30-

**Author's Note:**

> Title: Take On the World, or My Own Little Part of It Anyway  
> Author: Angel’s Kuuipo  
> Fandom: The Bourne Legacy  
> Rating: PG  
> Characters/Pairing: Aaron Cross, pre-Aaron/Marta  
> Warnings/Spoilers: Major spoilers for the film. Really, this is not going to make a lick of sense if you haven’t seen the movie.  
> Disclaimer: Not mine, never have been, never will be…damn it.  
> Written: August 20, 2012  
> Word Count: 1,085  
> Summary: The world was a totally different place now.


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